290 SKET CHES OF CR EA TI K 



nities to expound and enforce his views, insomuch that the 

 conviction has obtained great currency in Canada that this 

 limestone is the principal source of petroleum in that prov- 

 ince. Under this conviction, scores of oil wells have been 

 bored throughout the belt of Canadian territory immedi- 

 ately underlaid by the Corniferous limestone. If this for- 

 mation, say they, is the source of the oil obtained at Ennis- 

 killen, where it lies five hundred feet from the surface, let 

 us proceed to some region where this formation approaches 

 nearer the surface, and thus save several hundred feet of 

 boring. Though this reasoning has been put in practice in 

 multitudes of cases, both in Canada and the United States, 

 I am not aware of a single well bored in the Corniferous 

 limestone that has produced sivfficiently to pay expenses. 

 I do not regard the inference acted upon as legitimately 

 drawn from Dr. Hunt's views ; for he must perceive that, 

 even were this limestone the source of petroleum-supplies, 

 it.musthave evaporated throughout the regions of surface- 

 outcrop of the formation. 



But the Corniferous limestone seems not to be the source 

 of petroleum-supplies even in those regions where the super- 

 position of another formation has arrested wastage. If it 

 were the source of such marvelous quantities as have been 

 drawn from the Canadian strata, its own cavities and inter- 

 stices should certainly be charged with the liquid. To 

 test this precise question, a " test well" was bored at Ennis- 

 killen at the joint expense of parties interested, and was 

 continued over two hundred feet in this formation ; but 

 from the time of entering it the signs of oil were materially 

 diminished instead of increased. The Corniferous limestone 

 has also been penetrated at St. Clair, in Michigan, under 

 circumstances as favorable as possible for the discovery of 

 any great quantities of oil which may be stored up in its 

 recesses. The salt well at that place extended through the 



